With PM in Perpetual Campaign Mode, How Fair Are Elections in India Now? 3 Adani Companies Lose Their Endorsement from UN-Backed Green-Goals Arbiter

Normality returning in Manipur, Same uniform for brigadier and above, Modi minister says very few Muslims tolerant, Cyclone Mocha on its way, Brij Bhushan has deep roots in BJP

A newsletter from The Wire | Founded by MK Venu, Seema Chishti, Siddharth Varadarajan, Sushant Singh, Sidharth Bhatia, Tanweer Alam and Pratik Kanjilal | With inputs from Kalrav Joshi | Editor: Vinay Pandey

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Snapshot of the day

May 9, 2023

Vinay Pandey

It is no secret, and often held out as a point of pride, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is perpetually in election mode. That Modi is the BJP’s primary vote catcher is no secret either and his face is projected in every election, from local body polls to parliamentary elections. The timing of official visits by Modi, the kind of inaugurations done by him and the cost of such exercises to the public exchequer are a subject of debate. The official and the political seem to coincide. Is that fair? The Wire looks at Modi’s several inauguration sprees which have been twinned with party campaigns for state elections. 

The situation across violence-hit Manipur is improving, with no fresh reports of any untoward incident, while curfew has been relaxed in all the 11 districts where it was clamped, officials said on Tuesday. Chief minister N Biren Singh said on Monday that 60 people were killed and 231 injured in the violence that broke out last week. He also said that 1,700 houses had been burnt down in the violence and that 35,000 people had been displaced. Riots broke out in the northeastern state after a “Tribal Solidarity March” was organised in the 10 hill districts on May 3 to protest against the Meitei community’s demand for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status. Union home minister Amit Shah said on Monday that the Manipur high court’s order to grant ST status to the majority Meitei community would be discussed with all stakeholders.

A survivor of the brutal ethnic violence in Manipur recounts the horror and appreciates the ties that still bind people.

The Supreme Court will hear on May 15 a plea against the Kerala high court order refusing to stay the release of the controversial multilingual film The Kerala Story. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal on Tuesday mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha.

The Kerala high court on Tuesday termed as “shocking” and “haunting” the boat accident at Tanur area in Malappuram district two days ago, which claimed 22 lives including 15 children, and initiated a PIL on its own to find out why the authorities allowed the vessel to operate by allegedly flouting rules.

The Army has decided that officers of the rank of brigadier and above will have a common uniform from August 1 irrespective of their parent cadre and appointment, reports PTI, quoting military sources. The decision was taken after detailed deliberations during the recently concluded Army Commanders Conference and extensive consultations with all stakeholders, the sources told the news agency.

Top wrestlers protesting at New Delhi’s Jantar Mantar against Wrestling Federation of India chief and BJP MP Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who is facing serious sexual harassment allegations, were joined on Monday by various farmers groups, including two of the biggest in north India – the Bhartiya Kisan Union and the Samyukta Kisan Morcha. The Delhi police tweeted that farmers who were in a “hurry to reach the site” had knocked down barricades.

Locals and Trinamool Congress members have been protesting near the ancestral house of Nobel laureate Amartya Sen in Bengal’s Bolpur, against a decision by the authorities of the Union government-run Visva-Bharati university to evict him, reports PTI. Various departments of the university have had to remain closed as a result. The university, however, has said that Tagore’s anniversary celebrations will continue as scheduled. 

In a setback for Adani Group’s attempts to reposition itself as a leader of India’s energy transition, three of its companies – Adani Green, Adani Transmission and Adani Ports – have lost their endorsement from the SBTi, the world’s leading arbiter of corporate green goals, reports Bloomberg. The UN-backed SBTi, or Science-Based Targets initiative, helps companies establish concrete plans to reduce emissions consistent with the Paris Agreement’s target on limiting global warming. Sustainability-minded investors look for SBTi’s stamp of approval. Adani Group said it had asked the SBTi to justify the exclusion and was “optimistic” the SBTi would “review and reverse its decision.”

Pakistan is locked in an intense debate over its future diplomatic direction, after a recent cable leak exposed its government’s inclination to go all-in with China, reports Nikkei Asia.

Titled “Pakistan's Difficult Choices”, the leaked memo, written by minister of state for foreign affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, argued that the country “can no longer try to maintain a middle ground between China and the United States”.

Cyclone Mocha is on its way. India Meteorological Department said a low-pressure area was formed on Monday over the Southeast Bay of Bengal and adjoining South Andaman Sea. The area is expected to intensify into a depression by Tuesday evening over the Southeast Bay of Bengal and adjoining South Andaman Sea. On Wednesday, it is forecast to become a cyclonic storm over the Southeast Bay of Bengal and adjoining areas of East Central Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, reports the Mint, quoting IMD director general Mrutunjay Mohapatra.

In yet another instance of a Sangh parivar member flagging his bigotry, minister of state for law and justice Satya Pal Singh Baghel has said there are very few tolerant Muslims, and even those who appear to be tolerant use it as “a mask” to stay in public life and become governors and vice-presidents. “Tolerant Muslims can be counted on fingers. Their numbers are not even in thousands. Even that is a tactic. It is to stay in public life with a mask. This route then leads to the house of the governor and vice-president or vice-chancellor. But when they retire from there, they begin to speak their mind,” the minister said during an event organised by the RSS.

The Centre has defended in the Supreme Court the third extension of service granted to Enforcement Directorate chief Sanjay Kumar Mishra, asserting it was due to a peer review being conducted by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) this year and said he would retire this November. A bench of Justices BR Gavai, Vikram Nath and Sanjay Karol reserved its verdict on a batch of pleas challenging the third extension given to Mishra and the amendment carried out in law extending the maximum tenure of ED director to five years. FATF is a global anti-money laundering and terrorist financing watchdog. It sets international standards that aim to prevent these illegal activities and the harm they cause to society.

A day after Shiv Sena (UBT) mouthpiece Saamana said Sharad Pawar had failed to groom a successor who could take his party forward, the NCP chief hit back on Tuesday, saying he does not care what others write about him and those he groomed have already proved their mettle. “We don’t attach importance to what people write as to whether we have groomed a successor or not. They will write. It is their right to do so. We ignore it. We know what we are doing. We get satisfaction out of that.”

Today is Rabindranath Tagore’s 162nd birth anniversary. “Today’s citizens can collect their dues, be treated for illness, even draw their rations only by matching a computer program. With uncanny prescience, Tagore foresaw even this,” says Sukanta Chaudhuri in this tribute to the poet-philosopher.